Elkhorn Annexation Update

Click here to read the latest Plains Feeder post about Elkhorn annexation.
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One of the many reasons often stated for Elkhorn being the town of choice for western Douglas County folks facing annexation has to do with police response time. If you know anything about Omaha, the issue has been simmering for years. The claim has always been that poor folks (read negroes and latinos) and those out of favor with City Hall (read conservatives west of 72nd Street) have to wait longer for Omaha police to respond to their calls. An article in last Sunday's Omaha World Herald points out the disparities. (Here is a link, but the OWH will make it unavailable in 2 weeks.)

Most Omahans don't trust Mayor Fahey's administration to tell the truth about this problem, but even the distorted statistics on response time provided by the foxes watching the hen house make the situation look bad. And when a veteran local police officer, Kevin Housh, took the city to task over their lies and distortions in an article for the police union publication, The Shield, he was promptly fired. Seems he said the Mayor was lying and running a cover-up of the nasty results of his anti-police policies. Now the police difficulties are right out in the open, right where the closeted, secretive Mayor Fahey doesn't want it. Fahey is adamant about the firing, as the Feed Trough article from the Sioux City Journal, Omaha police fire beleaguered police officer, indicates.

Naturally, there are rallies and rants in support of the fired officer. Especially given that another officer, Tariq Al-Amin, one with ties to the Black Panthers, was fired for making murderous comments on his own TV show, and was later reinstated. The First Amendment has raised its august head off the table to make the Housh issue a federal case. In short, policing is a major fiasco in the wanna-be river city.

All the more reason not to be a part of it. Today in Elkhorn, if you are in need of a cop you won't have long to wait for a polite, professional cop who knows who you are and where you fit into the Elkhorn community. Western Douglas County deserves better than to be sucked into the ugly maelstrom that is Omaha policing. They deserve police who Serve and Protect, not cops who are afraid to do their jobs for fear of political reprisals. Keep the stink downtown.

Elkhorn: clearly the better choice if you don't want to wait a half hour for a Fahey-fear-hobbled officer to help you in west Douglas.